Update - The green energy bankruptcy parade is hard to keep up with. I listed fifteen bankruptcies in this column below. I wrote this piece earlier this month. Another bankruptcy was announced as this column went to press for the Las Cruces Bulletin. After press time another green energy bankruptcy was announced. The latest is a company called Satcon Technolgy Corp. It is another darling of the Obama administration that received a DOE grant earlier this year. You can read about this one here.
Commentary by Jim Spence - Ostensibly, the goal of the 2nd Annual Renewable Energy and Clean Technology Conference held in Las Cruces earlier this month was to:
“Bring New Mexico’s clean energy leaders together for a series of focused discussions on assessing the status of their industry sector, evaluating obstacles, and identifying key policy ideas that can move the sector forward.”
Here’s a reality check. Viable taxpaying businesses with real customers, profits, and tax obligations to take care of, simply don’t have time for these sorts of charade-like events.
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Jim Spence |
Who does have time for these types of conferences? The answer is simple; pretend businesses that couldn’t survive without taxpayer grants and direct subsidies. Others willing to risk their time are faux entrepreneurs hopeful of convincing gullible politicians to make it easier for them to tap into the public trough by encouraging the establishment of even more foolish grant and subsidy programs.
Want examples? Below is a list of fifteen separate entities that loved the idea of renewable energy conferences. These entities milked the system and raked in billions of taxpayer dollars in exchange for a promise to provide “clean and renewable” energy.
1) Abound Solar was awarded a $400 million loan from the Obama administration in December of 2010. Taxpayer dollars were gone by June of 2012 when Abound filed for bankruptcy. 2) Ener1 received a $118.5 million Department of Energy (DOE) grant. Joe Biden actually toured the Ener1 factory and made this ridiculous statement: “Here at Ener1, we’re going to harness electricity and bring it to the world, like Edison did more than a century ago.” Ener1 filed for bankruptcy on January 26, 2011. 3) Beacon Power received more than $25 million in DOE grants and a federal loan for $43 million before filing for bankruptcy in October of 2011. 4) AES Eastern Energy/Energy Storage received a $17.1 million DOE commitment on August 2, 2010 and filed for bankruptcy on December 31, 2011. 5) Amonix received $6 million in federal tax credits and a $15.6 million grant from the DOE for research and development and then filed for bankruptcy on July 18, 2012.
See rest of list here:
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